Kevin Hart likely still won’t be hosting the Academy Awards after he first stepped away, reconsidered, then seemingly dropped out again.
The “Night School” actor recently visited “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” to address some old homophobic tweets that surfaced a couple of months ago.
During the Jan. 4 interview, Ellen, who’s part of the LGBTQ community, revealed that she called the academy and fought for Hart to host the awards show. Hart also said he now knows better these days and won’t use certain kinds of language anymore.
“I’ve yet to go back to that version of the immature comedian that once was,” he said. “I moved on. I’m a grown man, I’m cultured. I understand what those words do and how they hurt. I understand why people would be upset, which is why I made the choice to not use them anymore. I don’t joke like that anymore, because that was wrong.”
It was last month that Hart accepted, then withdrew himself from hosting the Oscars after the old tweets resurfaced.
“Yo, if my son comes home and tries to play with my daughter’s doll house I’m going to break it over his head and say in my voice ‘Stop. that’s gay,’” read one of the tweets.
A remark Hart made in his 2010 stand up show “Seriously Funny” also hit the Internet and caused a stir.
“One of my biggest fears is my son growing up and being gay,” he said. “I’m not homophobic. Be happy, do what you want to do but me as a heterosexual male, if I can prevent my son from being gay I will.”
Hart first addressed the controversy on social media but didn’t apologize, which he caught severe backlash for. The 39-year-old said he was already sorry for the tweets and didn’t feel the need to keep repeating himself. Hart also said he’s the victim of Internet trolls, which he relayed to Ellen.
“My first thought is, ‘I’m going to ignore it. I’m going to ignore it because it’s 10 years old.’ This is stuff I’ve addressed,” he explained. “I’ve talked about this. This isn’t new. “I’m not going to pay it any mind, because if you feed into that stuff, you only feed into the fire.”
Both Hart and Ellen received criticism after the interview. Some felt the talk show host was trying to speak for everyone in the LGBTQ community by forgiving Hart.
And people like CNN’s Don Lemon said Hart still needs to offer a proper apology, because there’s no proof that he actually said sorry. Lemon also called for the comedian to be an ally for gay causes and help erase homophobia, particularly in the Black community.
“Many of us really need to keep the conversation going, it’s life or death,” Lemon said Jan. 4 on “CNN Tonight.” “Someone like Kevin Hart, with one of the biggest megaphones in the world, can be a leader, the ultimate change agent. He can help change homophobia in the Black community, something Kevin’s old Twitter jokes addressed, but in the wrong way.”
Hart, who has communicated through social media since the Ellen interview and Lemon’s comments, appeared conflicted last week about whether he still might be willing to host next month’s awards show. Earlier in the day of his appearance with DeGeneres, he told Variety that hosting the Oscars is no longer an option for him because the opportunity is already gone in his mind.
“Would I ever do it? No, it’s done. It’s done,” he said. “The moment came and it was a blessing and I was excited at the opportunity and I still am. In my mind I got the job, it was a dream job and things came up that simply prohibited it from happening. But I don’t believe in going backwards.”
In the days since Hart’s Variety interview and his seeming backtracking later that day on the DeGeneres show, multiple outlets, including Deadline magazine, have reported that unidentified sources say Hart has decided he will not be the host for the Feb. 24 Oscars ceremony.
Hart also posted a message that seemed to address Lemon, which you can see below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsQn8_DFb1V/
